North Bank Trail on Track in Sping Lake Township

based on a news article in the Muskegon News, "Paved path on course for upgrade, " by Terry Judd, April 11, 2009

Since 2007, the Friends of the North Bank Greenway Trail have been working hard to make use of the old Grand Trunk rail line between Grand Haven and Coopersville. It looks like that dream may soon begin to be realized.

The Ottawa County Planning Commission approved a resolution in October 2007 to look into trail plans. Last month, Spring Lake Township officials applied for a grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund to build the first 1.5 miles of the trail. Eventually the North Bank Trail would be 18 miles long and would link the existing Spring Lake Village Lakeside Trail with the Musketawa Trail (which connects Marne and Muskegon).

The first mile would run from Fruitport Road east to 144th Avenue. Although short the section would be attractive, with a raised berm above a wetland. Negotiations with property owners will be required to continue the next section. A side path would connect Lloyd's Bayou Drive to the North Bank Trail allowing access to Lloyd's Bayou Senior Apartments, Orchard Market and Burger King.

In 1976 the Grand Trunk Railroad shut down the Coopersville-Grand Haven line and removed the tracks. The townships of Spring Lake, Crockery and Polkton still own much of the right of way, but portions have been sold. Still, some people have hoped to see it used as a trail since the beginning, and three years ago the Friends of the North Bank Greenway Trail officially formed.

The West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition is handling donations to the project.

See West Michigan Trails and Greenways Coalition
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Public Lands Corps May Expand Volunteer Opportunities

from the Outdoor Industry Association

Congress is considering a major expansion of the Public Lands Corps program to expand volunteer and paid opportunities for work on federal lands and to recruit a new generation of public land managers.

The bill (H.R. 1612) would rename the corps the "Public Lands Service Corps." The new corps would have the potential to receive greater funding and it would give the departments of Interior, Agriculture and Commerce broader authority to recruit new members with a focus on attracting participants from under-represented communities.

The mission of the existing Public Lands Corps would also be broadened to address the new environmental challenges posed by climate change as well as continuing its original mission of addressing a severe backlog in maintenance and infrastructure projects on public lands.

Sally Jewell, CEO of REI, was one of several witnesses who testified before a House committee in support of the bill last week.

On March 19, the bill was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture, and Education and Labor, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Follow the bill at thomas.gov, enter HR 1612 in the search bar.
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Mt. Clemens Falcon Cam Views Nest

Hathor, a Peregrine Falcon (photo from Metromode)

based on a news article on Metromode, "Peregrine falcons web cam returns to downtown Mt. Clemens," April 9, 2009

A Peregrine Falcon named Hathor has set up her nest in one corner of the 11th floor of the Macomb County building for several years. She has actually tried out all of the corners. The 11th floor of the historic building is not occupied, so it makes a perfect nesting area for the falcons. The species is endangered and likes an undisturbed space to nest and breed.

Phil Frame, a spokesman for Macomb County, has set up a web cam just inside of the window, a few feet from the nest.

Hathor has been nesting in Mt. Clemens since 2005. Her first chick survived to learn how to fly, but died when it flew into a car. By the same mate, Hathor nested the next two years but there were no chicks.

In 2008, Hathor chose a younger male and they produced three new hatchlings named Clair for the lake, Clementine for Mt Clemens and Lenny for a recently retired Macomb County Commissioner. This male is named Nick and they are now nesting on the northwest corner of the building. Follow the link below for the web cam.

See theFalcon Cam - natural light, you won't see anything when it's dark out.
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Take In The Outdoors Bike Rides for National Trails Day

from Top of Michigan Trails Council

National Trails Day is celebrated all over the country on the first Saturday of June which is June 6, 2009.

The National Trails Day Ride, "Take in the Outdoors," starts and ends in Wolverine, Cheboygan County, Michigan. Ride in any direction from Wolverine. Sample round trip distances are

• Vanderbilt 21.8 miles
• Gaylord 37.0 miles
• Rondo Road 7.4 miles
• Indian River 19.2 miles
• Topinabee 30.4 miles
• Cheboygan 54.2 miles

All bikes are welcome, SAG wagons provided, vendor area, prizes, delicious lunch available at Wolverine for only $5. Registration is $25 or $30 after May 15, tee shirts included in price for pre-registered riders only (please register children in approved bike carrier at no charge). Registration and packet pickup begins at 8:30 am at Lumberman's Park located on the Sturgeon River in Wolverine near the junction of Main Street and the Straits Highway.

See brochure and registration for Take In The Outdoors (A pdf)
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Loreen Niewenhuis Walking Around Lake Michigan

Loreen Niewenhuis' son Ben contemplates Lake Michigan (from her blog- see link below)

based in part on a news article on WZZM- TV, Battle Creek woman walking around Lake Michigan, April 8, 2009

Loreen Niewenhuis says she was looking for a challenge and inspiration for a future book. She's also passionate about Lake Michigan, about protecting it. And like most writers she is always looking for a good story. She's chosen the title for her next book, A 1,000 Mile Walk on the Beach.

Now she just has to do the walk! She's divided the shoreline of Lake Michigan into 10 segments, and began walking around the lake in Chicago on March 17, 2009.

She's wants to increase awareness of environmental pressures facing Lake Michigan and all the Great Lakes. She believes in stronger regulations on the dumping of ballast waters from freighters - a problem that lead to the introduction of numerous invasive species.

Of the section below South Haven she says, "This segment covered a lovely section of the lake. The shoreline was quite varied. It ranged from high, treed bluffs, to sandy stretches, to eroding cliffs of clay and sand, to high dunes. Small towns stud this stretch and two nuclear power plants hold their ground on the lakeshore, too."

Niewenhuis hopes to finish her walk in September by returning to Chicago.

See Lake Trek, Loreen's blog
See Beachwalkers: Michigan and Ohio Hold Opposing Views
See EPA Predicts Even More Species Invasions for the most recent article about invasive species.
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New Book - Prairies and Savannas in Michigan

a news release of Michigan DNR

The Michigan Natural Features Inventory (MNFI) and Michigan State University Press are pleased to announce the publication of a new book entitled "Prairies and Savannas in Michigan: Rediscovering Our Natural Heritage." Highly readable and beautifully illustrated with more than 100 photographs, it will be of great interest to naturalists, private landowners, and field biologists.

"Few people realize that Michigan once contained significant expanses of prairies and savannas, and was not entirely forested," said Brian Klatt, director of MNFI. "Based on field research, scientific publications, and historical accounts, the book is the culmination of years of research. It brings together information from a wide variety of sources to paint a picture of these once extensive natural communities."

"Prairies and savannas are critical habitat for a wide variety of wildlife ranging from game species to rare and declining species," said Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division Chief Russ Mason.

Mason said that the book and the ongoing restoration of prairie and savanna habitat represent a strong partnership between MNFI, the DNR, and other agencies. In particular, the book will be a new educational tool for the DNR's Landowner Incentive Program, which helps private landowners manage their land for rare and declining species in prairie, savanna, and open wetlands through a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"Like MNFI's recently published Atlas of Early Michigan's Forests, Grasslands, and Wetlands, the new book will be very useful to conservation organizations and individuals alike," explained Tom Coon, director of MSU Extension. "Especially useful is a section on what private landowners can do on their own property."

The MNFI is a part of MSU Extension. Their mission is to deliver the highest quality information that contributes to the conservation of biodiversity, especially rare and declining plants and animals and the diversity of ecosystems native to Michigan.

The MNFI maintains the statewide database of rare species occurrences and conducts surveys, research, planning efforts, and educational workshops to enhance the conservation of biodiversity.

See Michigan Natural Features Inventory to purchase the book for $24.95
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Heating Bats' Winter Homes May Stop White-Nose Syndrome

little brown bats with white nose syndrome in NY (photo NY DEC)

based on an AP news story, "Heaters might stave off doom for bats," by Michael Hill, Mar 5, 2009

Over half a million bats have died in the past three years, from New England to Virginia, of a fungus known as "white-nose syndrome." The fungus has spread from two caves in upstate New York to at least 55 caves in several states. The fungus threatens to completely wipe out the already endangered Indiana Bat.

But it has been found that placing heated boxes in the bat's hibernation caves help the bats make it through the winter. With warmer caves, the bats do not have to burn as much fat to stay warm.

The fungus itself does not kill the bats. It apparently disrupts their sleep pattern, causing them to wake up often, use more energy than normal, and subsequently starve to death.

The heaters will not cure the disease, but it would be a stop-gap measure until more is known about the fungus. David Blehert, who first identified white-nose syndrome, said that the fungus is not spread from bat to bat in the summer because it needs cold to thrive. Blehert is a researcher with the US Geological Survey Wildlife Health Center.

No one knows if the heaters will make a significant difference, but a pilot study is being funded with a $28,000 grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The test will be conducted in a cave in Manitoba, Canada.

Blehert said that the problem is so critical that it makes sense to at least test the hypothesis.

See Indiana Bats Dying from Mysterious Mold
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Beer Foam and BIrd Feathers

Prum and Dufresne discovered that the nanostructures that produce some birds’ brightly colored plumage, such as the blue feathers of the male Eastern Bluebird, have a sponge-like structure. (Photo: Ken Thomas)

a news release of Yale University

Some of the brightest colors in nature are created by tiny nanostructures with a structure similar to beer foam or a sponge, according to Yale University researchers.

Most colors in nature— from the color of our skin to the green of trees— are produced by pigments. But the bright blue feathers found in many birds, such as Bluebirds and Blue Jays, are instead produced by nanostructures. Under an electron microscope, these structures look like sponges with air bubbles.

Now an interdisciplinary team of Yale engineers, physicists and evolutionary biologists has taken a step toward uncovering how these structures form. They compared the nanostructures to examples of materials undergoing phase separation, in which mixtures of different substances become unstable and separate from one another, such as the carbon-dioxide bubbles that form when the top is popped off a bubbly drink. They found that the color-producing structures in feathers appear to self-assemble in much the same manner. Bubbles of water form in a protein-rich soup inside the living cell and are replaced with air as the feather grows.

The research, which appears online in the journal Soft Matter, provides new insight into how organisms use self-assembly to produce color, and has important implications for the role color plays in birds’ plumage, as the color produced depends entirely on the precise size and shape of these nanostructures.

“Many biologists think that plumage color can encode information about quality – basically, that a bluer male is a better mate,” said Richard Prum, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and one of the paper’s authors. “Such information would have to be encoded in the feather as the bubbles grow. I think our hypothesis that phase separation is involved provides less opportunity for encoding information about quality than most biologists thought. At the same time, it’s exciting to think about other ways birds might be using phase separation.”

Eric Dufresne, lead author of the paper, is also interested in the potential technological applications of the finding. “We have found that nature elegantly self assembles intricate optical structures in bird feathers. We are now mimicking this approach to make a new generation of optical materials in the lab,” said Dufresne, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and physics.

Prum believes it was the interdisciplinary approach the team took that led to their success – a result he plans on celebrating “with another practical application of phase separation: champagne!”

Other authors of the paper include Heeso Noh, Vinodkumar Saranathan, Simon Mochrie Hui Cao (all of Yale University).

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Grand Rapids to Get New Mountain Bike Track

(photo Grand Rapids press)

based on a news article in the Grand Rapids Press, "Grand Rapids mountain bike trial, skills area to be built this summer around BMX park," by Howard Myerson, Apr 4, 2009

A mountain bike trail and skills area are planned for the former southwest Little League site in Grand Rapids, at 580 Kirtland. This is already the location of a BMX bike track operated by Helmet-On.

Michigan Mountain Bikers and Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation department have been working toward this day for three years. The trail is slated to become a reality in May. The park will explore new territory for Grand Rapids in more ways than one. The trail will be maintained by the Michigan Mountain Bikers Association (MMBA), in a cooperative agreement between the city and volunteers.

MMBA President,Nate Phelps, the former president of the West Michigan chapter of Michigan Mountain Bikers Association, said it will be a win-win situation for cyclists and the city. "We're going to build a little skill section with things like a log pile and rock garden that riders can bypass, a short trail, maybe a mile-and-half long and double lane pump track." The new trail will be built around an existing BMX trail creating an multi-purpose bicycle park.

$15,000 of in-kind support will come from the International Mountain Biking Association which offers assistance for projects it calls "Gateway Trails," or trails built in urban settings.

"The Midwest Mountain Biking Summit will be held in Grand Rapids on May 28-31," Phelps said. "We want the pump track to be done by that time."

See Grand Rapids Biking Map
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Tell Us A Horse Story

from Club Equestrian

Club Equestrian, with High Line Outfitters is sponsoring a video contest. Horse lovers may submit one or two videos. Each must be no longer than two (2) minutes in length and the video file size must not exceed 50 MB.

The prizes include a $100 High Line Outfitters gift certificate, and a prize package from the United States Equestrian Federation.

Winners will be determined by vote of the on-line members of Club Equestrian. Entries may be submitted till midnight, EDT, April 20, 2009. USEF will select finalists from the entries. Voting on these finalists will begin on April 22, 2009, and conclude at 5:00:00 p.m. EDT on April 30.

See Club Equestrian for complete details.
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DNR Frog Survey Begins Its 14th Year

gray tree frog (photo from Michigan DNR)

a news release of Michigan DNR

The Department of Natural Resources announces the start of the 14th annual statewide frog and toad survey coordinated each year by the department's Wildlife Division.

Declining populations of frog, toads and other amphibians have been documented worldwide since the 1980s. Studies suggest amphibians are disappearing due to habitat loss, pollution, disease, and collection.

Michigan's annual survey efforts help biologists keep tabs on frog and toad abundance and distribution in the state.

"We have collected a large, valuable data set to help us evaluate the condition of Michigan's frog and toad populations," said Lori Sargent, the DNR's survey coordinator.

The surveys are conducted by volunteer observers along a statewide system of permanent survey routes, each consisting of ten wetland sites. These sites are visited three times during spring when frogs and toads are actively breeding. Observers listen for calling frogs and toads at each site, identify the species present, and make an estimate of abundance.

"There are more than 400 routes statewide, running through every Michigan county. We add routes every year but we lose a few every year as well. The continued success of the program is dependent on strong volunteer support," said Sargent.

See Michigan Frog and Toad Survey
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A Really Good Reason to Shower Before Hopping in the Pool

(photo by John Watson)

based on a news article from Environment News Service, "Disinfectants Turn Swimming Pools Into Toxic Brews," Mar 31, 2009

Chemicals used to treat both drinking water and swimming pool water reacts with organic material to form disinfection by-products (DBPs). Ho-hum... why should we care, right?

We should care because when you add swimmers to a pool you have just added lots of organic material. A new study by the University of Illinois shows that of the hundreds of compounds created, some are toxic, some cause birth defects, some cause cancer and others are genotoxic, which means that they damage DNA.

It has long been known that professional and athletic swimmers have a higher rate of both asthma and bladder cancer than the regular population. They have more exposure to these chemicals, which may either be inhaled or absorbed through the skin.

Michael Plewa, the team’s leading geneticist, says that swimming pools and hot tubs are DBP reactors. "You've got all of this organic material called people - and people sweat and use sunscreen and wear cosmetics that come off in the water. People may urinate in a public pool. Hair falls into the water and then this water is chlorinated. But the water is recycled again and again so the levels of DBPs can be ten-fold higher than what you have in drinking water.”

This is why people are asked to bathe or shower before entering a public pool. "It's the organic material that gets in the pool that is disinfected and then recirculated over and over again. That's why we call swimming pools disinfectant by-product reactors," said Plewa. "But by public education, by personal behavior, there should be ways that we can reduce the levels of the dissolved organic material that should reduce the level of DBPs."

The study found that DBPs containing nitrogen are much more toxic than those that do not. They also found the same result for DBPs with iodine. Plewa added, “we've made two fundamental discoveries that hopefully will aid the U.S. EPA in their regulatory decisions." Neither nitrogen nor iodine in DBPs is currently regulated.

Public pools are highly chlorinated to keep bacteria and pathogens down but very little research has been done before now to evaluate levels of the disinfection by-products generated.

Plewa and his team of scientists received a Science and Technology award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their paper, "Occurrence, genotoxicity and carcinogenicity of regulated and emerging disinfection by-products in drinking water: A review and roadmap for research." It was published in the scientific journal "Mutation Research."

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